attribution theory
a theoretical proposition about the processes by which people ascribe motives to their own and others’ behavior, and particularly whether these motives are either internal and personal (a dispositional attribution) or external and circumstantial (a situational attribution). Harold H. Kelley identified three general principles of attribution: the covariation principle, stating that for a factor to be considered as a cause of behavior it must be present when the behavior occurs and not present when the behavior does not occur; the discounting principle, stating that the role of a particular cause in producing a particular effect should be given less weight if other plausible causes are also present; and the augmentation principle, stating that if someone performs an action when there are known constraints, costs, or risks (e.g., runs a marathon on a cold and rainy day), then his or her motive for doing so must be
stronger than any of the inhibitory motives. Kelley’s work and other prominent attribution theories (e.g., correspondent inference theory) emerged from the naive analysis of action developed in 1958 by Fritz Heider.